As interesting as one may think of travelling, there are several disadvantages about being a frequent traveller. Today, I shall touch on the monetary aspect.
I am writing this post because I just calculated the amount of foreign currencies I have in my drawer. And I realized I have so much of them I could buy a laptop if I were to convert all of them back to Singapore Dollars (SGD).
You may then wonder, why don't I make a more precise estimation in the first place of how much I would need, before I change SGD to foreign currencies?
Well...my answer is if I could do that, I would have done that.
Sometimes, it is difficult to estimate how much is needed for each overseas trip, because it depends on many surprise factors such as the itinerary, which is usually confirmed only after landing at the destination.
So to play safe, there would be a tendency of changing slightly more than what is needed.
Another disadvantage about changing money so frequently is the loss of some money through each transaction with money changers. Don't get what I am saying? You see, just like any other businesses, money changers make their profits by buying and selling currencies.
Let me give you an example of what I mean:
Originally I might have SGD 1774.
After changing to Euro Dollars (EUR) for instance, I get EUR 1000.
This amount of EUR 1000 is only equivalent to about SGD 1740 if I were to make a reverse exchange (EUR to SGD).
Even though I did not actually "spend any money", just by changing money to another currency I lose SGD 34 worth of money.
Essentially, you lose some money through each currency exchange. And this brings me back to the point about changing slightly more money than what you would need in your country before going abroad. Yes, of course you can change money again overseas when you do not have enough. However, the more transactions you make, the more money you lose, especially when you are overseas (the money changers MAY charge taxes and adminstrative fee).
It is also possible to withdraw money using your usual Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards from the ATM overseas. However as far as I know, there would be an adminstrative charge, say SGD 5, for each ATM transaction. And the amount of money you withdraw is subject to the lousy bank rates.
So except for emergency cases, why even think about withdrawing from ATM overseas?!
I am writing this post because I just calculated the amount of foreign currencies I have in my drawer. And I realized I have so much of them I could buy a laptop if I were to convert all of them back to Singapore Dollars (SGD).
You may then wonder, why don't I make a more precise estimation in the first place of how much I would need, before I change SGD to foreign currencies?
Well...my answer is if I could do that, I would have done that.
Sometimes, it is difficult to estimate how much is needed for each overseas trip, because it depends on many surprise factors such as the itinerary, which is usually confirmed only after landing at the destination.
So to play safe, there would be a tendency of changing slightly more than what is needed.
Another disadvantage about changing money so frequently is the loss of some money through each transaction with money changers. Don't get what I am saying? You see, just like any other businesses, money changers make their profits by buying and selling currencies.
Let me give you an example of what I mean:
Originally I might have SGD 1774.
After changing to Euro Dollars (EUR) for instance, I get EUR 1000.
This amount of EUR 1000 is only equivalent to about SGD 1740 if I were to make a reverse exchange (EUR to SGD).
Even though I did not actually "spend any money", just by changing money to another currency I lose SGD 34 worth of money.
Essentially, you lose some money through each currency exchange. And this brings me back to the point about changing slightly more money than what you would need in your country before going abroad. Yes, of course you can change money again overseas when you do not have enough. However, the more transactions you make, the more money you lose, especially when you are overseas (the money changers MAY charge taxes and adminstrative fee).
It is also possible to withdraw money using your usual Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards from the ATM overseas. However as far as I know, there would be an adminstrative charge, say SGD 5, for each ATM transaction. And the amount of money you withdraw is subject to the lousy bank rates.
So except for emergency cases, why even think about withdrawing from ATM overseas?!
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